While Melbourne chills, northern Victoria bakes again

While Melburnians can look forward to relatively comfortable temperatures in the coming week, Victoria's north and north-west will be sweltering through seven straight days of intense, 40-degree heat.

After a scorching day across the state on Tuesday, southern Victoria – including Melbourne – experienced sweet relief from the heat as a cool change gradually swept through, dropping Melbourne's temperature from a stifling 41 at 6pm to a pleasant 25 degrees by 9pm.

Despite a predicted hot weekend for Melbourne – with the mercury forecast to reach 39 on Saturday and 42 on Sunday – sea breezes from the coast will keep the temperatures cooler in several parts of the city.

The Bureau of Meteorology's senior forecaster Richard Carlyon said Melbourne's bayside suburbs will be about two to three degrees cooler than those on the outskirts of the city and the CBD itself.

The weather bureau is warning of a stretch of hot days for the north of the state ... but Melburnians may not be flocking to the beach. Photo: Sebastian Costanzo

At the same time, Swan Hill and Mildura can expect the mercury to hover at 40 to 44 degrees for the next week, while Albury-Wodonga residents will experience marginally lower temperatures, ranging from the high-30s to the low-40s.

Nights will not provide much relief, either, with the mercury only dipping to mid-20s across most parts of northern Victoria.

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Mr Carlyon said there was no sign of any strong, cool change from the south.

"The only way we could get colder weather is if there was rain coming down from the tropics, or cold air from the south," he said.

Mr Carlyon said a high pressure system over the Tasman sea will deliver hot, northerly winds to the northern parts of the state.

If the heatwave continues beyond the forecast seven days, it may set a new record for the most consecutive days over 40 degrees, Mr Carlyon said. At the moment, the period just before Black Saturday in 2009 holds that record with 12 consecutive days above 40 degrees.

"Today is only the beginning of the stretch of hot weather, as we'll have to see what happens," he said.

"This kind of heatwave is not very common – it's a significant hot stretch of weather."

Tuesday’s extreme temperature also wreaked havoc across Melbourne’s south-east, igniting an electrical pole and leaving more than 1,500 residents without electricity for most of Wednesday morning.

United Energy spokesman Stuart Allott said Melbourne’s extreme heat, followed by misty rain, caused the top of a power pole in Mulgrave to catch on fire, burning through and breaking wires.

Shoppers at Waverley Gardens were also caught in the blackout after power at the shopping centre went out about 9am, with crews only restoring electricity about 11.30am.

Mr Allott said about 300 customers who live closest to the fault were still without power.

‘‘We’re working as quickly as possible to switch them back on,’’ Mr Allott said.